practice
Breaking the Taboos Around Colo-Anal Diseases: A Female Surgeon’s Perspective
By: Dr. Zeel Sheth The healthcare industries of developing countries like India have seen an enormous gain in the past few decades. Developing countries have taken up multi-track strategies, including preventative measures propagated by educational campaigns, to further this medical advancements. But that blessing can sometimes act as a vice when there is a vast, unfiltered sea of information available on the internet with unrestricted access by the patients searching their symptoms and not being able to resist the non-regulated self treatments. Surgery has been my ultimate passion. From how to use my scalpel to when to not use it, to the glory of the theatre and its humility, my surgical residency taught me everything. While it did teach me how to help those who need it, what it failed to educate me on was how to be of assistance to those who would hesitate to ask for your help....
A Journey to Self-Acceptance and Surgical Residency
Alexis L. Woods, MD Being comfortable with my queerness is not something that always came easy to me. I grew up in a Southern household where homophobic comments were common. As a result, I had a lot of internalized homophobia as a teenager and I struggled to come to terms with being gay - leading down a winding road out of the South and to medicine. I was in denial for a few years, lacking positive queer role models. It was the 90s, and there were only a few queer women openly out and I didn’t identify with them. Emancipated at 16-years-old, I left my parents’ home, began working, and finished high school through a community college completion program. During this time, I could no longer deny I was queer, but I was closeted and spent a lot of time wishing I wasn’t gay. In my early 20s, I found...
Authenticity and Queer Joy in Surgery
By Aeryn Kangas-Dick, MD The art of surgery is the art of connection. As surgeons, we have the unique privilege to meet our patients in times of need and offer them real, concrete, often rapid solutions to their diagnoses. As vital as the surgeon’s skills in the operating room are, the surgeon’s mandate is to create an immediate connection forged with trust and understanding with our patients. We ask them to be put under general anesthesia and to place their lives in our hands. In return, we become their fierce advocates. The sense of ownership in patient care is unmatched in any other specialty. We make ourselves available to tend to their needs after typical business hours and drop everything to care for their issues whether we are on call or not, often to the neglect of our personal lives. Creating a meaningful connection requires honesty, openness, skill, confidence, and...
Progress of LGBTQ+ Rights – A View from One of America’s Youth
By: Alexis Moren The progress of LGBTQ+ rights has seen significant advancements globally, although challenges remain. Over the past few decades, there have been major milestones such as marriage equality, anti-discrimination laws, gender identity rights, parenting rights, and the LGBTQ+ community serving openly in the military. Despite these advances, challenges persist. I have been part of conversations discussing how lucky we are to live during this time. This sparked my curiosity – are we? Do LGBTQ+ kids and teens feel this way? I have the pleasure of being close to a pre-teen trans girl who dreams of becoming both a trauma surgeon and a published author. I asked her to tell us about her journey and her aspirations. “I am trans. This does not define me but it sure plays an important part in many aspects of my life; I have been bullied at school, had to keep my identity...
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery: The Best Specialty You Know Nothing About
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery: The Best Specialty You Know Nothing About By Jaclyn Tomsic The famous philosopher Confucius once said, “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” I can say that being an oral and maxillofacial surgeon has made this quote my reality. Oral and maxillofacial surgery, or OMFS, as we are most commonly referred to on hospital wards and in EDs, is an internationally recognized specialty. As defined by AAOMS, The American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, oral and maxillofacial surgeons are the experts in face, mouth, and jaw surgery.1 Despite this, few people truly understand what we do. I am here to shed some light. Let’s break it down for a minute. Oral and maxillofacial surgery. What does that really mean? Oral means mouth. Maxillofacial means jaws and face. Therefore, putting that together, OMF surgeons treat disease,...
WOMEN SURGEONS HAVE BETTER OUTCOMES THAN THEIR MALE COUNTERPARTS
By: Anna DeFreitas "Women cannot seriously pursue medical careers (…) unless they stop being women: due to physiological laws, women doctors are ambiguous, hermaphrodite or sexless creatures, monsters at any rate. Let those who fancy such a distinction try to acquire it." This affirmation by the French physician Lucas-Championnaire shows the long and arduous path women had to take to become doctors and surgeons. The practice of Medicine required masculine qualities, according to the 19th-century view: "In order to be a physician, one needs a sharp and open mind, a solid and varied education, a serious and strong character, a great deal of self-control, a mix of benignity and stamina, a complete command over one’s feelings, moral vigor and, when necessary, muscular strength. (…) Isn’t feminine nature just the opposite?" The Journal of Medicine and Surgery Practice stated: "Let us add that it seems obvious that in France women would...
Being Vulnerable is Human; Even for Surgeons
By: Cathy Hung In the earlier years of my career, I always tried to accommodate patients’ needs anytime, all the time, whenever possible. I opened my office many times off-hours at the slightest concern of patients with complaints of bleeding or pain. One time, I rerouted my weekend day trip when my son was still a toddler. We planned to take him to a museum, but as soon as I got called, my family drove one hour back for me to see a consult while my family waited in the parking lot outside the emergency room, only to find out that it was a routine consult with no urgency what-so-ever. I jumped whenever someone called me off-hours. After all, I pride myself as a caring human and a good doctor. The fight-and-flight responses were by-products of being trained at a level-one trauma center during my residency. I would be frisked...
The Imprint of 3D-Printing in Health: A Students Perspective
In a technology driven world, the abundance of information and ease of communication has influenced every aspect of our lives. Not only has it affected the way we interact as humans, but it provided new outlets for skill development and creativity. One of my favorite expressive outlets is 3D-printing. From designing flower vases to replicating anatomical models, my engagement with 3D-printing allowed me to bring theoretical ideas to life by combining the natural sciences, technology, and art. When I first observed my older brother use a 3D-printer, I was fascinated by the geometric lattice in which the machine ejected thermoplastic, as it closely resembled the molecular arrangement of atoms observed in structures like crystal and bone. My curiosity with both technology and human health, led me to learn more about 3D technology and its applications in research, specifically on improving and enhancing human health. Introduced in the 1980s as a...
Mindfulness as a Tool to Build Confidence
By: MaryAnn Ulasi I spotted a number 5 on the concrete street. By number 5, I mean the stage of a particular “bug” that was made famous by the swarm that landed in NYC last year. Its growth curve is visualized in order of the clockwise circuitous pathway of a quarter; it reminded everyone what they were looking at. As I continued to gaze at the nymph stage of the dead lanternfly with its mangled red body, crushed under spotted black and white wings, I was sucked into a moment of time that I rarely experienced - the present. It was gross and painful, and the exposure was a little too much for real life. After all, for most of us, real life is not the present but rather the past or the future and the irony is hardly ever obvious to us. I certainly have been guilty of living...
Impact of Narrative Medicine in Surgery
By: Raslina Shrestha, MD “We can make the world a better place, one story at a time.”- Lisa Gerber A revelation unfolded during my shifts in the burn ward in Nepal. As the patients grappled with excruciating pain, disfigurement, and an arduous path to recovery, I observed an extraordinary phenomenon: patients from diverse backgrounds, occupying different beds, formed unexpected bonds of friendship and support. They shared their personal stories, extended solace to one another, and, most significantly, provided invaluable insights into coping and healing. It became abundantly clear that shared experiences and a sense of community had a remarkable impact on the recovery process. To bolster the confidence of these patients, they needed to be reminded that they were not alone. Motivated by this insight, I stumbled upon the realm of “Narrative Medicine”, the intersection of the humanities, art and health care. This emerging discipline equips clinicians to better comprehend...
